C1498 / C1498-luc Orthotopic Mouse Model Service for Leukemia

The C1498 / C1498-luc orthotopic mouse model of leukemia replicates the systemic, blood-borne course of acute myeloid leukemia within a fully immunocompetent host, delivering a quantifiable whole-body tumor burden signal through luciferase bioluminescence from the day of engraftment onward. Alfa Cytology runs this model as a dedicated preclinical service — covering authenticated C1498 line stewardship, luciferase variant qualification, intravenous engraftment in syngeneic C57BL/6 recipients, scheduled in vivo imaging, survival monitoring, and flow-cytometry-based organ burden analysis — so leukemia programs obtain clean, time-resolved efficacy data under genuine immune pressure.

Overview of C1498 / C1498-luc Orthotopic Mouse Model for Leukemia

C1498 is a murine leukemia cell line that arose spontaneously in a 10-month-old C57BL/6 female mouse in 1941 and has served as a workhorse acute leukemia model for more than half a century. Historically classified as myelomonocytic, the line is uniformly positive for the pan-hematopoietic marker CD45 and the myeloid markers gran-1, Mac-1, and Mac-3, is MHC class I positive but class II negative, and lacks T-cell, B-cell, and NK-cell markers; later molecular work re-characterized it as an atypical NKT-lineage leukemia with myeloid features, expressing transcripts for IL-2, IL-15, and macrophage migration inhibitory factor. In practical terms, C1498 grows aggressively in vitro in suspension culture and, when injected intravenously into syngeneic C57BL/6 recipients, homes to the bone marrow and expands explosively through blood, spleen, liver, and other organs.

Fig 1. Syngeneic C1498-GFP-Luc leukemia model in immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice used for longitudinal assessment of systemic leukemia burden and therapeutic response. (Stachura, Paweł, et al., 2025)

The orthotopic implementation of this model mirrors clinical leukemia biology: leukemic cells circulate, colonize the marrow and hematopoietic organs, and progressively displace normal hematopoiesis, typically killing untreated recipients within two to four weeks at conventional challenge doses. Luciferase-tagged derivatives — engineered by stable transfection or lentiviral transduction with firefly luciferase, alone or alongside fluorescent reporters such as GFP or mCherry — allow whole-body tumor burden to be quantified serially after D-luciferin administration, with photon flux tracking viable leukemia cell numbers and signal foci revealing marrow, splenic, and hepatic involvement. This imaging capability, combined with its fully immunocompetent syngeneic setting, has made the C1498-luc orthotopic model a reference platform for checkpoint blockade, STING agonism, hypomethylating-agent immune modulation, and cell-based vaccination studies in acute leukemia.

Cell Line Information: C1498 / C1498-luc

C1498 is one of the oldest continuously used murine leukemia lines, with a surface-marker and cytokine-expression profile that straddles myeloid and NKT-lineage biology. The C1498-luc variant carries stably expressed firefly luciferase for in vivo optical tracking. The principal characteristics are summarized below.

Our Services

Working with a fast-moving systemic leukemia demands tight operational control, and that is exactly where Alfa Cytology concentrates its effort: authenticated C1498 master banks, early-passage expansion for study cohorts, verified luciferase expression in vitro before any animal receives a cell, and imaging calendars synchronized to disease kinetics. Once studies are underway, Alfa Cytology pairs whole-body bioluminescence with survival scoring and flow-cytometric organ analysis, keeping sponsors informed at every imaging timepoint so therapeutic effects in this aggressive in vivo setting are captured accurately and on schedule.

Workflow of C1498 / C1498-luc Orthotopic Mouse Model Construction

Because leukemia is a systemic disease, constructing the C1498-luc orthotopic model centers on controlled intravenous engraftment followed by imaging-guided longitudinal follow-up. The sequence below reflects the standard operating flow, calibrated so that baseline measurements, treatment windows, and survival endpoints align with the model’s rapid disease tempo.

1. Line authentication and reporter verification: C1498 / C1498-luc stocks are expanded at low passage, cleared of mycoplasma, and validated for uniform luciferase expression by in vitro luminescence assay across serial passages.
2. Cell preparation for engraftment: Study cultures are counted and resuspended in sterile PBS at the challenge dose (commonly 0.5-2×10⁶ viable cells in approximately 100 µL for intravenous delivery).
3. Recipient preparation and inoculation: Syngeneic C57BL/6 mice are acclimatized and stratified by body weight, then injected via the tail vein using warmed restraint and visualization support to ensure a clean intravenous delivery.
4. Baseline bioluminescence imaging: After a short engraftment interval, mice receive intraperitoneal D-luciferin (typically 150 mg/kg) and whole-body imaging documents initial tumor signal and confirms systemic distribution.
5. Longitudinal disease monitoring: Photon flux is recorded on a fixed schedule (commonly weekly), alongside body weight, blood counts where required, and clinical signs, building per-animal disease-progression curves.
6. Treatment execution and randomization: Mice are allocated to treatment arms with matched baseline signals, and test articles — chemotherapeutics, checkpoint antibodies, agonists, or cell products — are administered according to the study plan.
7. Survival follow-up and terminal analysis: Morbidity-defined survival endpoints are recorded for Kaplan-Meier analysis; at termination, spleen and liver are weighed and imaged, bone marrow and blood are sampled, and flow cytometry quantifies leukemic burden across organs with histopathology confirmation.

Fig 2. C1498 / C1498-luc orthotopic mouse model construction workflow.

Case Study-C1498 / C1498-luc Orthotopic Mouse Model Development

Alfa Cytology has supported preclinical leukemia programs on the C1498 orthotopic platform for sponsors exploring immune-modulatory agents, combination regimens, and delivery technologies. In these engagements, weekly whole-body bioluminescence sessions produced per-animal progression curves that quantified therapeutic effect against systemic disease, while terminal flow-cytometric surveys measured leukemic burden across bone marrow, spleen, liver, and blood, complemented by spleen weights and histopathology. Survival data were analyzed using standard Kaplan-Meier methods to capture treatment-mediated survival benefits in this aggressive setting. Program-specific designs, schedules, and outcome summaries are maintained as client-specific deliverables, and illustrative outlines can be shared on request.

Why Choose Alfa Cytology?

In a model where untreated animals succumb in a matter of weeks, there is little margin for operational error. Alfa Cytology’s leukemia service is built around that reality: disciplined cell banking, imaging synchronized to disease kinetics, and endpoint analyses designed for statistical rigor. Sponsors selecting this service typically benefit from:

• Low-passage, authenticated C1498 stocks with verified luciferase output before study launch.
• Syngeneic C57BL/6 engraftment in a fully immunocompetent setting, essential for immunotherapy evaluation.
• Quantitative whole-body bioluminescence that tracks systemic burden from engraftment through endpoint.
• Signal-matched randomization that balances treatment arms against heterogeneous baseline disease.
• A comprehensive terminal package combining survival analysis, organ flow cytometry, and histopathology.
• Responsive study management with per-timepoint updates suited to the model’s rapid disease tempo.

Contact Us

Planning an acute leukemia efficacy study in an immunocompetent in vivo system? Contact us to review your candidate, dosing concept, and imaging schedule. Alternatively, reach out to Alfa Cytology for a customized C1498 / C1498-luc study design and quotation — our preclinical team will get back to you promptly with a plan built around your program’s timeline.

For research use only. Not intended for any clinical use.